GREED: ALL FOR WHAT?

Chapter 1688: Guilty As Charged.



Then he took the single drop of milky liquid out of the bottle and made it touch his body. The drop seeped into his existence immediately. His body and soul began to heal because of it.

He sighed in relief. "Fortunately, I have life essence."

Life essence is very good. It replenished the water he had lost and rebuilt the broken bucket. It made him retain his top fighting strength before the third and last tribulation descended.

He didn't know when the third tribulation started either. This time around, he won't be able to know because he has lost focus. His mind was wandering, and his thoughts were scattered. He was not aware of his environment or purpose at all.

The lightning was still striking him, but he couldn't feel pain anymore. He couldn't feel the itch either. The mind tribulation is that insidious. If he had waited until now to use life essence, he wouldn't be able to use it because he wouldn't even be able to remember that he had it.

Tandrake's mind wandered elsewhere in the middle of a tribulation. His body and soul were burned but he wasn't concerned about them. He is currently having a dream.

He didn't know that he was hallucinating, so everything he sees looks real, and he believes it is real. In this dream, he saw Ghoto's mother. She was the woman he decided to spend his last days with when he thought he was going to die as a titan of law.

He didn't die at the end of the day. He gained control of his concept, and he left her. They were no longer of the same world. She was a mortal while he had eternal life. It was only a matter of time before she died. He decided to leave her before that happened.

She too decided to keep something of him before he left. She got pregnant with Ghoto, but she didn't tell him about it. When he found out about Ghoto, he didn't acknowledge the boy. He didn't raise him or take care of him. She died, but she has now appeared in his mind to be the embodiment of his last tribulation.

She said to him, "You killed our son."

Her voice was quiet and sorrowful. She didn't accuse him with much conviction, but he couldn't help but feel a pang of guilt in his heart.

Still, he denied it, "I didn't kill him."

"You did. You never cared for him, and you took the life essence he needed to become a titan of law. If he had it, he wouldn't have died."

"I didn't force him to hand it over. He was going to sell it to anyone. I bought it from him without coercion."

His explanation didn't placate her. She maintained, "You killed him. You could have warned him or advised him not to sell it. You could have forced him to keep the life essence for when he might need it. You could have lent him the money he needed for his family. But you did none of that, and now he is dead. You are a father who killed his son."

"I didn't kill him. He was a grown man who could make his own decisions and bear the consequences of them. He was not a child who needed codling. It was his mistake that killed him."

He explained it several times, and he denied it over and over again. It was because he felt guilty, and he wanted his lover not to think badly of him. Especially since he left her alone back then.

But she refused to listen to him. She blamed him, and he spent his time trying to convince her of the opposite. This occurred time and time again for a long time. This was going on even as his body and soul diminished.

This is the wrong approach to this test. He wasn't supposed to feel guilty. He shouldn't have tried to explain himself. He should have owned up to what he did without remorse.

He should have said, "I did it for power, and that's all that matters."

Instead, he wasted his time convincing a ghost that can never be convinced. Eventually, life essence ran out. His body and soul were destroyed in his attempt. He failed the tribulation and died.

It is just one of the many deaths on the path to immortality. Immortality is enticing, but thousands of others have died for each person who has achieved immortality. One needs talent, luck, and determination to achieve it.

If one of these is lacking, even the best of the best will fall along the path to immortality. Tandrake lacked the determination to pursue immortality at all costs without regrets. For that, he is not worthy of immortality.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

--What's Next After The End?

There are three major paths of power in the void universe. The path of perfection is one. The path of divinity is one, and the path of demons is the other. These three paths have their strengths and weaknesses. They have advantages and disadvantages. But one area of weakness that they all have is the need for a realm tree.

The void universe is too dangerous for beings that are not immortal. They need a safe space conducive to their growth for them to develop into immortals. Without a realm tree, those on the three paths will suffer.

The high heaven realm is gone. Everyone within it died when the era of conquest ended. This includes the gods. None of the gods could leave the realm, so all of them went down with it.

As for the demons, they too are not well off. But at least, some of them survived. This is because, even though all of them within the realm died, those in the abyss survived the destruction of the realm.

They lived longer until the abyss fell apart because of the absence of a realm tree. Now they have to find their way too in the hostile void universe.